The entire town of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada was rallying behind one of their own residents who had led them to believe she was pregnant with quintuplets. When the pregnancy¹ was eventually revealed as a fake, the community understandably felt betrayed.

加拿大魁北克的Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu小镇居民听说一名女士怀了五胞胎，都积极地为这位准妈妈提供帮助。没想到这竟然是个彻头彻尾的骗局，整个小镇的人都感觉受到了背叛。

As reported by CTV News, the woman (whose identity is being withheld² for privacy as she undergoes psychiatric care) had kept the fictitious³ pregnancy story going for months and was only exposed when her delivery date arrived. Reportedly the woman, 35, told her boyfriend, identified by CTV as Paul, that she was pregnant with twins one month after they met on an online dating site. The number of children kept changing, going to triplets, then quadruplets, and eventually up to quintuplets.

根据CTV新闻，这位女性(由于在接受精神治疗，暂不透露她的姓名)编造自己怀孕的故事长达数月，直到预产期将近谎言才被戳穿。据报道，这位35岁的女性和她男友Paul在交友网站认识一个月后，告诉男友她怀了双胞胎。孩子的数量一直在变，从三胞胎到四胞胎，最后变成了五胞胎。

The Toronto Sun reported that when the woman told her friend that she was pregnant, the friend quickly set up a Facebook page so the couple could get assistance from the town.

多伦多太阳报报道称当这位女士告诉她的朋友她怀孕了，朋友马上为她建一个Facebook主页，让镇上其他人给这对情侣提供一些帮助。

Geneviève Laflamme, a mother of triplets, told CTV, “I gave her tips on how to handle it, where to get financial support, where to get sponsors for diapers.” Laflamme grew suspicious as the weeks passed and she detected holes in the woman’s story. Then, a week before the due date, the woman told Laflamme that a new ultrasound showed that she was carrying quintuplets. At that point Laflamme stopped believing the woman.

Geneviève Laflamme是位三胞胎的母亲，她告诉CTV，“我给了她一些建议，怎么凑钱，怎么才能获得免费的尿布。”几周后，Laflamme越来越怀疑，她发现这位女士故事中有漏洞。预产期前一周，这位女士告诉Laflamme，她新做的超声波检测显示她怀上的是五胞胎。这一刻，Laflamme彻底不再相信她了。

The hoax⁴ was finally brought to light when the couple went to the hospital for the delivery at 34 weeks. Canoe News reported that the Paul, 35, was taken aside by a nurse and shown results of the woman’s blood test that indicated she was not pregnant. "The doctors told me it was a phantom⁵ pregnancy," he said crushed, adding that his now ex-girlfriend was being kept under psychiatric observation.

怀孕”34周后，这对情侣到医院为分娩做准备，谎言终于被拆穿。Canoe新闻报道称，护士把35岁的Paul带到一边，将血液检验结果交给他，报告显示她根本就没怀孕。“医生告诉我她这是假孕。”他知道之后倍受打击。他的女友(现在是前女友)已经在接受精神观察。

According to the Toronto Sun, the boyfriend said that his girlfriend’s, “…belly⁶ swelled⁷, she began lactating and even broke water.” Gynecologist Isabelle Girard felt that symptoms like the ones the woman displayed could have alternate explanations. She said, “A woman could push her belly outwards⁸, stop going to the toilet or just eat more.” Girard thinks what Paul believed was water breaking could have been urinary incontinence. Finally, the doctor felt that the lactation claims were doubtful but said, “That could result from intense nipple stimulation⁹.”Paul was disappointed and tearful but wanted to make sure that he let his supporters know what happened.

据多伦多太阳报的报道，Paul说他女朋友“肚子隆起，开始分泌乳汁，甚至还破羊水了。”妇科专家Isabelle Girard则表示这位女士出现这些症状可能是由于其他原因。她说：“女性只要少上点厕所或者就多吃一点可以自己把肚子撑大。”她指出，Paul所以为的破羊水可能只是尿失禁。乳汁分泌值得怀疑但也可能是乳头受到强烈刺激导致的。Paul失望极了，几乎要哭出来，但还是希望确保那些为他们提供帮助的人知道真相。

CTV spoke¹⁰ to Montreal Jewish General Hospital’s Dr. Haim Abenhaim, an obstetrician and gynecologist, who explained two types of phantom pregnancies¹¹. “One is called pseudocyesis, and that’s a condition whereby the person gets some physical manifestations¹² of pregnancy. They can have missed periods, they can have a distension¹³ in their abdomen¹⁴, and they can really have signs of pregnancy and that’s usually on top of maybe a strong desire to be pregnant…The other condition is a completely delusional¹⁵ pregnancy where they feel that they are pregnant, then maybe inside they don’t think they are.”

CTV咨询了蒙特利尔犹太综合病院的妇产科医生，医生给出了假孕现象的两种解释。“一种叫做假妊娠，身体会产生妊娠变化，比如可能会停经，腹部隆起，还有其他一些怀孕的症状。这大多是对怀孕过分期待导致的……还有一种情况则完全是怀孕妄想症，感觉上她们会觉得自己怀孕了，但也许心底里她们清楚自己并没有怀孕。”

The Toronto Sun notes that the woman’s family and friends claim that the woman has a history of posing as an expectant mother of twins, a leukemia patient, and allegedly reported suffering from other maladies. The woman’s family is happy that she is finally getting psychiatric care.

多伦多太阳报指出，这位女士的家人和朋友称她曾装作自己怀了双胞胎、得了白血病及其他一些疾病。她的家人很高兴她终于接受精神治疗了。